We can’t turn tail and run
By: Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:49 pm | Friday, May 11th, 2012
And to the Chinese government, we live in fantasy land, because we are mistaking its “forbearance” for “timidity.” At the same time, its story of being harassed, robbed, and pressed into a corner, played tricks on, detained, is an objective, factual account.
China calls it Huangyan Island. We call it Bajo de Masinloc. We say that the area has been delineated as Philippine territory in Spanish maps dating to the 17th century. China says that this same area has been delineated as its territory in its maps dated several centuries ago.
But what about the fact that Bajo de Masinloc/Huangyan is only something like 230 kilometers away from Zambales while it is 1,200 km from the nearest major Chinese land mass? Only think of how long it would have taken Chinese boats several hundred years ago to go to and from the area. Tiny boats. No refrigeration. What would be the point of using the place as fishing grounds? No one has given a satisfactory reason.
But isn’t Huangyan, at a distance of 1,200 km from China, outside of its exclusive economic zone (200 miles or 320 km), while it is well within that of the Philippines, as we claim?
Not to China, which thinks that our territorial claim is “untenable” because, quoting from the director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs under State Oceanic Administration, “there is no such principle in international law that determines territorial ownership by geographic distance, and this theory based on geographic distance … has no basis in international law and judicial practice.” And if the Philippines’ theory was upheld, he says, the world map would be totally redrawn.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/28553/we...n-tail-and-run
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